The charismatic aristocrat's disappearance sparked one of the greatest mysteries of the last 100 years

NOVEMBER 8, 1974: Lord Lucan vanished without a trace on this day in 1974 after bludgeoning to death his children’s nanny and sparking one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries.

The charismatic aristocrat, who disappeared hours after 29-year-old Sandra Rivett’s body was found at his central London home, was finally declared dead in 1999.

But there have long been claims that the debt-racked gambler was spirited away by his high-rolling friends and even watched his three children grow up in South Africa.

And doubts have persisted over his guilt, despite his wife, Lady Lucan, insisting that she was also attack by her estranged husband, who is the subject of a new ITV drama.

Their youngest daughter, barrister Lady Camilla Bloch QC, 43, recently broke her 39-year silence to say there was no proof that her father was a murderer.

However, an inquest, seven months after Lord Lucan’s disappearance, named him as Miss Rivett’s murderer – the last time coroner’s court was allowed to do so.

Police believe he planned to kill his wife in the basement of the Belgravia home they had shared until their marriage collapsed and she won custody of the children in 1972.

But the apparent ambush failed on the night of November 7, 1974, after the women who entered the cellar was instead Miss Rivett, who had a seven-year-old son.

Using the same bandaged lead pipe, he is then said to have attacked Lady Lucan, who fled in a blood-soaked nightdress to a nearby pub and shrieked: “Murder, murder! I think my neck has been broken! He’s tried to kill me.”

Police rushed to the house and found a body and a blood-stained lead piping. The three children – Frances, who was then ten, George, seven, and Camilla, four – were safe.

Lord Lucan pictured at West End club in April 1973, a year before his disappearance. (Rex)

Shortly after midnight, they then broke into the property 100 yards away where Lord Lucan had been living - but he was not there.

The professional gambler had driven a borrowed Ford Corsair 42 miles to meet Susan Maxwell-Scott at her home in Uckfield, East Sussex, which was his last confirmed sighting.